Well well, not blogs in almost two weeks and suddenly two blogs within one. Recent events concerning blogging has aroused my interest to post it here. In Singapore, two bloggers were recently brought to court and subsequently jailed for committing an offence under the Sedition Act, one law that has not been broken for nearly forty years.
A brief history of blogging will follow. A blog was first known as web log or "weblog" but later, the name was misintepreted by someone to be "we blog" instead or "web log". Thus, by chance, the new word "blog" was formed. Blogging became popular in the 21st century as teenagers, adults and even retirees took on the blog as a new form of communication that was free and easy. Immediately, blogs' hosting websites sprang up - Blogger.com, x-diary etc. Blogging also meant that you could express your dissent and reveal your feelings on a certain topic anonymously.
The arrest of the two bloggers in Singapore was mainly for committing an offence under the Sedition Act, which is considered to be quite important, since Singapore hosts a wide diversity of races and religions and promotes religious tolerance. According to the news reports and investigations, the argument apparently started from a Muslim passing of a comment on the Strait's Times "Forum" section about pets being allowed in cabs. A blogger (let's call him blogger A) then posted horrible comments on a certain website on this incident, causing another blogger (blogger B) to post even worse comments on his personal blog. Shortly, they were both arrested - well, I can't say that they didn't deserve it right?
However, I feel that the Muslim may not have known about pet taxis which are less commonly seen yet some taxi companies do offer this service. Also, being a worker at a dog kennel, blogger B probably blogged without thinking and on impulse. Still, I feel that blogger B deserved his one month's stay in jail.
Probably, this would serve as a warning to other racist bloggers on the Internet. Now, we all need to be consious and think before we blog - *haiz* tiresome.
